Welcome to the Creative Pen podcast. I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur,

bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing craft and creative business.

You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more at thecreativepen.com. And that's Pen with a

double N. And here's the show. Hello creatives. I'm Joanna Penn. And this is episode number

768 of the podcast. And it is Friday the 30th of August 24 as I record this, and we head into the last third of the year.

In today's show, I'm talking about writing horror and selling direct with David Villegoutz.

David has started using actual physical letters in the post to connect with readers,

tell a story in a new way and really stand out, as well as

make way more money than selling on Amazon. So yes, we do geek out on horror in the first

section, but it is more about business. And it's a great discussion I learned a lot. Plus, I did

subscribe to get the letters. And I've had two so far and they are indeed very cool

and something I hope more authors do. They certainly stand out and are memorable. So that's

coming up in the interview section. In Publishing Things, on the self-publishing advice

podcast, Dale Roberts and Holly Greenland

discuss the best marketing investments for authors. Holly reports back on her survey of indie authors,

which found that grit and resilience are more important than having a previous background in marketing,

which is good. And it's certainly something I've found.

Remember, my degree is in theology and I have a second diploma in psychology, but nothing to do with

writing or publishing or business, everything I've learned along the way and done little courses

and things like that, but mostly just giving things a go. So yes,

grit and resilience being super important. Also, what was interesting in the survey was 50%

of the people had not approached an agent or publisher for their book. Going indie was a conscious

...